Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

from Institute of Science in Society
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/SustainableWorldInitiativeF.php
Some benefits of sustainable food production systems

    * 2- to 10-fold energy saving on switching to low-input/organic
agriculture

    * 5 to 15% global fossil fuel emissions offset by sequestration of
carbon in organically managed soil

    * 50 to 92% reduction in carbon dioxide emission from the soil on
switching from conventional tillage to no-till agriculture

    * 5 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission disappear with every tonne of
nitrogen fertilizer phased out

    * 2-3-fold increase in crop yield using compost in Ethiopia,
outperforming chemical fertilizers

    * Organic farming performs as well or slightly better than conventional
industrial farming in the US

    * Small farms are 2 to 10 times more productive than larger farms

    * Organic farms support significantly more birds, bats, invertebrates
and wild plants than conventional farm in Europe

    * Organic foods contain more vitamins, minerals and other
micronutrients than conventionally produced foods

    * 1 000 or more community-supported farms across US and Canada bring
$36m income per year directly to the farms

    * £50-78m go directly into the pocket of farmers trading in some 200
established local farmers' markets in the UK

    * Buying food in local farmers' market generates twice as much for the
local economy than buying food in supermarkets chains

    * Money spent with a local supplier is worth four times as much as
money spent with non-local supplier